Best VPN for Torrenting

How to pick the best VPN for torrenting from the dozens of VPN services available. Chose wisely!

Helping you through the maze of figuring out which is the best VPN for torrenting.

With almost 200 VPNs on the market today (see our detailed VPN comparison table) and all of them clamoring for your attention, it can be tough to find the right VPN to keep your torrent file-sharing safe.

Which VPN for torrenting you choose is probably themost importantdecision you will make in achieving safe and anonymous torrenting to protect yourself from monitoring and snoops. Let us cut through the clutter and help you with your decision.

Top Tip – If you are in a hurry and just want the answer, the best overall VPN for torrenting is NordVPN. It is fully torrent-friendly, is based outside the USA and has a full 30-day money-back guarantee.

In this post, we take you through the process of whittling down all the available choices and deciding on a best torrent VPN for your p2p file-sharing needs.

How to Choose the Best VPN for Torrenting

Here's a summary of what you should look at when trying to choose the best VPN for torrenting:

does the VPN protect the privacy of its customers? Make sure it keepno logsor records of your activities?

how much does it cost? Are discounts, free trials or money-back guarantees available?

how many servers does the VPN have and in how many countries?

how reliable & fast is the VPN?

how do current and former customers rate their experiences with the VPN?

what advanced features does the torrent VPN have to protect your IP address from leaks?

If you are in the market for a VPN to protect your privacy while p2p torrent file-sharing (or using Popcorn Time), all of the criteria we discussed for how to choose the best VPN service still apply.

But on top of those, you should also keep the following factors in mind when choosing a VPN for torrent file-sharing to protect your sensitive p2p activities.

Make Sure the VPN Supports Torrents

This may sound obvious, but plenty of VPN providers (and especially free VPNs and free proxies) do not support P2P file-sharing and so won’t protect your privacy or identity if you want to download torrents anonymously. Make sure the torrent VPN you are considering expressly supports torrent file-sharing (sometimes called p2p or peer-to-peer).

Look for specific statements on the VPN provider’s website and documentation. These are not always obvious or easy to find as many VPN providers keep quiet about this and don’t loudly advertise that they support torrent file-sharing.

VPNs that do NOT Allow Torrenting​

The VPN providers listed below do NOT permit torrenting. So, if you are in the market for a VPN to protect your p2p torrent file-sharing, you do NOT want to choose one of these VPNs!

Remember also that The Onion Router or Tor for short (a free, open source anonymizing tool), is not suitable for torrent file-sharing. If you try torrenting using Tor, your true IP address will leak and expose you in the process.

Make Sure the VPN Keeps No Logs

One of the most, if not the most, important things to confirm when shopping around for a best VPN for torrenting is that it does not keep any logs.

This way, even if they are compelled to disclose information, there is nothing meaningful for them to disclose as they don’t keep any logs of your activities.

Top Tip – Our best VPN for torrenting picks, including NordVPN, have strict no logging policies which means your p2p file-sharing cannot be traced back to you through the VPN service's logs.

If a VPN allows torrent file-sharing on its servers but also keeps logs of your activities, that poses too much of a risk.

By keeping logs the VPN can too easily breach your privacy and open up your torrenting activities to the kind of snoops who monitor torrent downloads.

As boring as it sounds, read the legalese on their website, whether it is called a Privacy Policy, Terms of Service or Legal Information. Look for elements about logging and privacy protections extended for customers.

For example:

Do they keep logs?

What kind of logs (connection, activity, others)?

Do they disclose customer information?

If so, under what circumstances?

If you cannot find the answers to these questions, do some more homework.

No Logs Mean Snoops Hit a Dead-End

Let’s take an example.

Anyone trying to snoop or monitor your torrent file-sharing activities will link your torrenting activities to the anonymous IP address assigned to you by the VPN. So even if a snoop went through the trouble of tracing back the traffic and IP address to its source, this would lead them to the torrent VPN’s proxy servers, rather than to you.

But because the VPN keeps no logs of customer activities, that’s where the trail would end: the snoop would hit a roadblock and your identity would remain anonymous.

This is why it is important to confirm the VPN provider is not logging user (your) activity or connections. You will want the snoop’s back tracing to hit a dead-end at the torrent VPN provider and not be further traceable back to you.

As you can see, non-logging is a very important consideration for those seeking out a safe VPN for torrent file-sharing. However, it can be an important consideration for anyone wanting to keep any of their online activities private, anonymous and away from prying eyes.

Money-back Guarantee or Free Trial Period

Always look for a VPN with a money-back guarantee or free trial period. This gives you peace of mind and ensures the VPN works well for your particular circumstances (your location, devices, operating systems, intended uses, etc).

A money-back guarantee is also a sign of a reputable VPN provider, rather than the many fly-by-night VPNs out there. Any good VPN will be willing to offer at least a 7-day guarantee period. Some, like NordVPN and ExpressVPN, have 30-day guarantee periods!

Reasonably Priced VPN

Price is important but not as straightforward as you may think. There are a couple of different ways to look at price.

You could compare VPNs based on their absolute price or you could compare their price per device as many VPN services allow you to use a single account on multiple devices at the same time.

If you plan to use your VPN account simultaneously on multiple devices, this can be a big attraction and have an enormous impact on your price calculation and the overall value of the VPN service you are thinking about.

For example, you could use a single VPN account to protect your Windows laptop and Android tablet as well as your girlfriend’s Mac laptop and iPad. 🙂 Even if you were using all 4 of these devices at the same time, it’s no problem as a single account from any of our recommended torrent VPNs allow multiple devices to be simultaneously connected.

US- vs non-US Based VPN or Does it Even Matter?

At this stage, some people might be tempted to exclude any US-based VPN services (or any VPNs based in “Five Eyes” or “Fourteen Eyes” countries) but we are of 2 minds about that.

Yes, US-based services (or those in “Five Eyes” or even “Fourteen Eyes” countries) may be more susceptible to NSA style surveillance. But we don’t think there is any less risk of that for VPN services based in other countries.

As the Snowden revelations apply demonstrated, the NSA is not shy about spying on foreign citizens, companies or even governments.

Plus, a recent court case showed beyond a shadow of a doubt that even the FBI couldn't identify one of Private Internet Access' customers thanks to its strict no logging policy.

And anyway we are not convinced that the NSA or similar agencies are inclined to take any interest in your torrenting activities (unless for example you are downloading ISIS recruitment videos or such things).

Top Tip - If you are worried about NSA-style surveillance as revealed by Ed Snowden, you may want to consider choosing a non-logging VPN based outside the USA, such as NordVPN​.

Advanced VPN Features for Torrenting

Advanced features seen among the best VPNs for torrenting include a kill switch. This is a VPN feature that disables your Internet connection like a tripwire if your connection to the VPN unexpectedly drops. This helps ensure that your true IP address is never leaked or compromised while downloading torrents.

DNS leak protection is a VPN feature that ensures some special connections your computer and other devices make at a very technical level are always routed through the torrent VPN. Again, this is to ensure that your true IP address is never disclosed to would-be snoops.

Best VPNs that Allow Torrenting Wrap-Up

When torrent file-sharing, you need the full protections offered by the best VPN for torrenting you can afford so that your p2p torrent file-sharing activities are anonymous.

There's a time when its worth spending a few bucks to protect your online privacy, and torrent file-sharing is definitely one of them!

Whether you choose one of our recommendations or use the VPN comparison table to reach your own conclusions, take heart knowing that you are protected in your torrent downloading activities. 🙂